Leap signs 1st international deal for music

San Diego’s Leap Wireless has inked its first international partner for Muve Music, which offers music downloads to mobile phones.

Muve will provide the platform for music downloads to TIM, a mobile operator in Brazil – one of the largest cell phone markets in Latin America.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. TIM is the fastest-growing mobile carrier in Brazil, with more than 70 million customers and nearly 27 percent market share.

Leap has sought to license Muve Music technology beyond the U.S., where it uses the service to set itself apart from Boost, MetroPCS and others in the hotly competitive North American no-contract wireless market.

Muve has become one of most successful digital music subscription products on the market in the U.S. with 1.4 million users. In February, Leap hinted that it might spin Muve Music off into a separate company to pave the way for licensing the software platform to carriers internationally. But to date Muve remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Leap.

The platform will work differently in Brazil with the TIM deal than Muve works in the U.S. TIM will charge users an extra monthly or daily fee to download as many songs as their phones can store. In the U.S., there is no extra fee for Muve customers. The record labels are paid through a portion of the $50 monthly Muve Music cellular rate plan.

Leap, which operates under the Cricket brand name, has not broken out financial results for Muve Music. Analysts, however, estimate that about $5 each month from Cricket’s Muve Music rate plans goes to the record companies — no matter how much music a customer downloads.

Muve is offered with every Cricket Android smartphone rate plan and is seen as one of the key factors in increasing customer loyalty in the hotly competitive prepaid wireless market.

Subscribers have access to songs as long as they remain Cricket customers.

Once they disconnect from Cricket, they no longer can tap into the music on their phones.

TIM music powered by Muve will include Shazam, a music application that identifies music listeners hear and makes it available for download. The service also includes a "My DJ" feature with playlists in popular genres.

The music service will be offered on two rate plans –one for no-contract customers and one for customers who have a cellular contract.

“We are bringing to music the same concept that revolutionized the use of voice, SMS and data in the Brazilian market, said Roger Solé, chief marketing officer of TIM Brazil, in a statement. “Based on studies that show that 80 percent of Brazilians say that they are passionate about music, we decided to include music in our strategy to further enhance the experience of our customers.

For this launch, TIM has also partnered with major local and international record labels including Sony, Universal Music Group, Som Livre, iMusica and the Orchard, offering a catalog of more than four million songs. More label partners will be added throughout the year.

"We're thrilled to be working with TIM on this transformational opportunity," said Jeff Toig, senior vice president of Muve. "Muve Music's mission is to bring a premium digital music experience to mass market customers around the world and this initiative delivers on that promise."